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Devotional for August 12, 2017: “Opening the Mind”

“Now He said to them, ‘These are my words which I spoke to you while was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” – Luke 24:44-45

What can often go overlooked about the above passage is how it played out in how the apostles did things in Acts. Notice what Jesus said. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. He opened their minds to understand how the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms spoke about Him.

Take a look at the early chapters of Acts, maybe up through chapter 10 or so, where the apostles and others preached, paying specific attention to those places where they quote from Scripture, meaning what we know today as the Old Testament. Would you like to guess from what portions of the Scriptures they quoted? You guessed it: the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Those were the quotes that they used to prove that Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus opened their minds to understand and it showed in how they thought and how they went about demonstrating to people who were listening to them why Jesus was who He said He was and what He had to endure and experience. And understood they did.

What about us today? Obviously the way in which Jesus opened the minds of the disciples (He was physically with them) is not what has happened to us, but through the Holy Spirit, we who believe have had our minds open as well to understand, to have a level of perception that goes beyond the physical into the spiritual.

At one point in his first letter to the Corinthian believers, Paul says that we, believers, have the mind of Christ because we have the Spirit. That means our perception and understanding of things are at a different level.

So, remember that. Seek to have that perception and understanding sharpened by spending time with the one who gave us that mind – the Spirit. It will open up things to you like never before.